Monday, July 1, 2013

The Edge (1997)

Tagline: They Were Fighting Over A Woman When The Plane Went Down. Now, Their Only Chance For Survival Is Each Other.

Plot: Billionaire Charles Morse accompanies his supermodel wife Mickey to
photo shoot at Alaska. The shoot is to be made by fashion photographer
Robert Green. To find specific Indian for the shoot, they fly to even
more distant location, where their small plane crashes into a lake. To
survive in the woods full of man-killing bears they need each other, but
the smarter of the men - Charles is suspicious that Robert is having an
affair with his wife.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

It stars Anthony Hopkins. It's written by David Mamet. Yet when I read the plot synopsis, it sounded ridiculously stupid. That was 15 years ago when I first watched it. It's fantastic. Hopkins once again shows how masterful he is at his craft. And Baldwin holds his own which is remarkable since most of the picture is just the two of them on screen. L.Q. Jones was great, too. There's not a bad performance in the bunch and with Jerry Goldsmith's fine score (very nice theme and its repeated uses doesn't bother me at all) and great direction by Lee Tamahori, this is one great action thriller. Bart the bear is imposing as hell and his action sequences are expertly handled. The editing by Neil Travis is particularly good. And the Alberta ski resort location is gorgeous. Great flick. Don't let the cornball premise keep you away from it. It's expertly handled. But if I've got one complaint it's that Baldwin's character says Charles' name about 2,837 times and it's almost laughable as soon as you pick up on it. Otherwise, it's a great flick.